Website Traffic: A Must-Have for Webmasters
Website traffic is the lifeline of any website on the Internet. Regardless of whether you sell advertisement, sell your own products, or sell the products of others, you need traffic, and lots of them.
You need 2 things to get good traffic:
- Great website with good & unique content or service
- Great marketing plan
I assume that you already have a great website ready with good content. Therefore, I'll focus solely on the marketing aspect in this lens. If you don't have a website yet, go build one. Come back here later when you already have one, I mean a good one.
What follows are the juice of online marketing. No flowery words. Only essence.
We'll start with the easier methods and move up to the harder ones.
Table of Contents
Social Bookmark Marketing
This is the easiest one. Go to the following social bookmark services and submit your site or blog.Note
Do not try to spam these sites by submitting all your articles, webpages or blog posts. You'll most likely end up being blacklisted. Instead, submit only a few of your best articles or blog posts.
Search Engine & Directory Marketing
Submit your websites to the search engines to get them indexed. Your sites will then be searchable in the search engines.Submitting to the directories is a little more trickier as your site will first be reviewed by an editor before being listed. This could take between a few weeks to a few months. In some cases, your site might even be rejected.
The rule of thumb is to submit and then forget. If your site gets accepted, good. Else, move on.
Here is the list:
Social-News-Voting Marketing
Social News Voting sites are very similar to social-bookmarking sites in that they allow you to share news and articles from your site. But in addition to that, community members can discuss about your articles and vote for or against them. The more votes your articles get, the higher they rank and there is a probability they will be featured on the front page of the site. This will give you an avalanche of free traffic! However the traffic is usually short-term and non-recurring.Below are some of the top social news voting sites:
Note
The key to success here is to first socialize and get yourself known in the community. Contribute some meaningful discussions. Then only do you try to submit your articles or content.
Article Marketing
Write a few articles on a subject you're comfortable with. Put your website link in the signature box at the end of your article.Some internet marketers and gurus advocate using modified PLR (private label rights) articles. I would strongly advise against doing that. Your article will most likely end up being rejected. If it gets accepted, it will rank lowly in the search engine results. My advice is to write your own articles using your own words. It is not that hard after all if you really try.
Here are some sites you can submit your articles to:
Forum Marketing
Online forum is another place where you can promote your websites, blogs or Squidoo lens. Most forums do not allow you to promote your business directly in your postings. However, you can create a signature with a link back to your site. Your signature will be appended to each of your posts. There are thousands of forums on the Internet catering to different niche. Below are a few forums to get you started.Note
Help out fellow members by posting quality answers to existing topics. Establish yourself as an expert in your circle and develop trust and relationships.
Social Network Marketing
Social networking sites allow you to build an online network of friends who share the same interest as you. You can put your website link in your profile or post some interesting articles with link pointing to your sites.Traffic Exchange Programs
If you want some instant free traffic, traffic exchange programs are for you. Basically, you earn credits by visiting the websites of other members. These credits can be exchanged for traffic to your site. Sounds simple, eh?Here are some programs to get you started:
A Word Of Warning
If your site makes income mainly through Google Adsense, you should avoid traffic exchange programs because Google's official stance is "these programs are not recommended". If your website sells products or you want to drive traffic to affiliated sites, then by all means, try them.
Craigslist Marketing
- Post to the correct category
- Use different titles and ad description
- Use different email address for each posting
- Change your IP address often
Here's the site: Craigslist
Blog Marketing
Blog marketing requires more patience and work. After creating your blog, you need to keep it fresh by posting new content every day or two. But it's worth the work. Search engines love blogs, especially blogs with fresh content. They usually rank high on the search results. Put your website link on your blog. This will give you incoming traffic and increases your website's Google PageRank.Here are some places where you can create free blogs:
The above is only one aspect on blog marketing. There is another aspect which is blog commenting. It involves leaving short comments and your website link on other relevant blogs. This sounds easy but let me be frank with you, the effectiveness of this method is quite limited. You might get some incoming traffic but in most cases, it won't increase your website's PR or search ranking. This is because most blogs add a nofollow attribute to outgoing links to deter spammers; and seach engines will ignore these links.
Online Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of the latest online marketing techniques that is often overlooked by internet marketers. When done correctly, video marketing is extremely viral. A humorous or slightly controversial video clip will surely create a buzz. In addition, video marketing can help you brand your site. You can include your site logo or URL on the video clip to achieve this.Upload your video clip to the following video sharing sites:
Video Search Engine Optimization Tips
1. Use meta data in each video. Include targeted keywords in the title, description and keyword tags.
2. Encode your video in multiple formats.
3. Utilize media RSS.
4. End your video with a message like "Forward this video to your friends".
Secret Weapon - Squidoo Marketing
Yes, the secret weapon I'm talking about is Squidoo, the very website you're looking at now. It's one of the most effective marketing methods you'll find. I'm putting it at the end because I always save the very best for the last.I don't think I need to put much introduction about Squidoo here. You'll most likely already know what Squidoo is all about. There are also plenty of help and support here.
So what are waiting for? Sign up for an account if you don't have one yet and start building your lens.
Internet Marketing Books You'll Love
These books will help you learn the more advanced techniques of online marketing.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 08/20/2008)
Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 08/20/2008)
Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions
Amazon Price: $19.79 (as of 08/20/2008)
Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 08/20/2008)
Mastering Online Marketing
Amazon Price: $14.93 (as of 08/20/2008)
Poll: The Most Effective Online Marketing Methods
Please vote according to your experience and not guesswork. This will allow us to have an accurate list of marketing methods ordered by their effectiveness.
Your Precious Feedback
Feel free to leave your valuable tips, comments and feedback.
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Travelpartners4u
Very nice Lens I gave it 5 stars and joined your fan club! I like reading SEO material. Posted August 16, 2008 |
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DrAnujGupta
It is great job keep it ahead. Seo Services Call Center Services Free Link Building Posted August 14, 2008 |
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aidenw
Valuable information, 5 stars from me. I have favorited your lens for reference. Writing articles is indeed a great way to generate free traffic to your site. Posted August 06, 2008 |
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moneygames
Thanks, a lot of useful info Posted August 04, 2008 |
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AdamTaha
5 stars! This is a well done, amazing, wow kind of lens. Learnt a lot from it. Will be back again to read again!!! Brillaint Posted July 30, 2008 |
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kansasww
Very helpful info here 5 stars and a new fan. Posted July 24, 2008 |
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CNSQ
Very Nice Lens, 5 Stars for this one Posted July 18, 2008 |
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Tony-Matos
Enjoy your lens, great information on free traffic and a lot of good ideas, wishing you a lot of success I'm planning using some of your techniques on my lens http://www.squidoo.com/successfulwithforextrading so until next time. Posted July 16, 2008 |
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linhuck
great information, Some great traffic generating advice. Thanks for sharing Posted July 10, 2008 |
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BethErickson
wow perfect 5! got this site i need to promote within 3 weeks, wish i knew where to start... hope you can drop by for a comment on this question (you could rate too if you like :))thanks for sharing the info. Posted July 04, 2008 |
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2n2kas
Very very nice ! 5 star for you ! Thanks :* Posted June 27, 2008 |
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Michaud68
5*'s Great Lens Posted June 23, 2008 |
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Amanda_Blue
Terrific information aned advice. Thank you! 5* Posted June 21, 2008 |
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Tentacles
Super Smart Posted June 18, 2008 |
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Vishal_Rao
Nice information. Given you 5 stars :) Posted June 17, 2008 |
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dtbs
interesting lens! thanks for sharing this info! please check mine out at----------------> Kava Kava. Posted June 11, 2008 |
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A_RovingReporter
Great five-star lens! Posted June 10, 2008 |
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anilg
Great lens with valuable tips. Know about best online money making programs here Posted June 09, 2008 |
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Miss_Bare
I have only done print advertising for my online business and I should have done these things first! I'm pretty green, so this information has been very helpful in trying to get my head around marketing on the web. I didn't know where to start. Thanks! Posted June 08, 2008 |
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Starving_Artist
great information, I've added you to my favorites..5 *'s for all the help Posted June 07, 2008 |
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EditorDave
Hi Olivia! Great lens! I've "favorited" it (and will return to it often to learn more!). Although I've cooked up a bunch of Squidoos, I've yet to learn how to make them *popular* enough to rise to the "top 100" or to make some decent money . Ah well... I'm using Squidoo as my "learning playroom" to get better at creating websites in general. Thanks again for such great information. Posted June 06, 2008 |
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Gusher
great lens with great topic, thanks for sharing, ;-) Posted June 05, 2008 |
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poddys
Great lens, lots of great tips, thanks. 5*****. Posted June 04, 2008 |
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BlessedOne
Great info, thanks. I'm new to this stuff, so I have lots of learning ahead of me and things like this really helps! Have a blessed day! ~ Tracy Posted June 01, 2008 |
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Matthew_Ferry
Great lens, I gave it 5 stars... =) Posted June 01, 2008 |
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XpectMorebizsolutions
Wow, this lens was soooo informative. There is one area directly that I really learned. Thank you for your help and advice. Posted May 31, 2008 |
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MiaBellezza
Good lens. You might want to reconsider the Traffic Exchanges - I believe Google penalizes for that. Posted May 31, 2008 |
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Maa
Excellent information! Posted May 28, 2008 |
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alteredkat
Great advice! Thanks Posted May 27, 2008 |
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hearthealth
cool, 5* to the extra effort to bring on this lens! hope you can drop by my lenses! Posted May 25, 2008 |
